1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for and a method of pedal control for an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly, to improvements in the pedal operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art piano or similar musical instrument has a damper pedal, a shifting pedal, and a sostenuto pedal, etc. When the damper pedal is operated, a damper in the piano is separated from a string, allowing a continual sounding of a musical tone after the key is released; when the shifting pedal is operated, a hammer in the pedal is moved slightly to thereby cause a sounding of two of three strings; and when the sostenuto pedal is operated, only strings producing a sound at that moment are caused to continually produce a sound until the pedal is released. Namely, as described above, the pedals can effect various types of musical control; other pedals include a soft pedal and a mute pedal, etc.
The musical control by such pedals is effected uniformly over all of the keys of the piano, but in actual play, it is often desired to effect a musical control by the pedal operation for only a part of the keyboard. For example, it is often desired to divide the keyboard into an upper keyboard and a lower keyboard, and effect a musical control by the pedal operation over one of the keyboards alone. This desire is particularly pronounced with regard to a key split, in which different timbres or tone colors are produced by using the upper and lower keyboards.